Ever wanted to get involved at the zine library, but weren’t sure how?
Have some free time and want to just drop in and work on a few projects?

On Sunday, 6/26, we’re inviting anyone to drop in throughout the day to volunteer and learn about what it takes to be a collective member and/or volunteer!

Some projects we may be working on include:
-Re-shelving zines
-Cataloging
-Painting/decorating
-Cleaning/re-organizing
-Designing a new flyer

We will be going over our collective process and signing folks up for training shifts as well if they are interested.

Lunch provided!
(Facebook event here)

The Boston Latin School‘s afternoon drawing class made a trip out to Papercut recently! They were so excited about our collection, that they ended up making their own zine together. Thanks for sending us a copy, BLS. Come back any time :)

As you may have heard in our last post, we are extending our fund raising drive to make one final push to $3500!

As one of our final incentives we want to help you kick off summer in Boston right, so we’re raffling off chances to win great times and great treats from two of Somerville’s beloved eateries and treateries:

**A $20 gift certificate to Diesel cafe in Davis Square and
** A 10 person sundae party at JP Licks Homemade Icecream Cafe!! (lots of delish vegan options available)

Anyone who donates $5 or more will be entered in the raffle for the Diesel gift cert and anyone who donates $10 or more will be entered to win the sundae party!

You can donate via paypal here: http://bit.ly/jzTqtQ
Or send check or cash to 226 Pearl St / Somerville.

Help keep Papercut open and enjoy some of the tasty treats of Somerville!

Over a hundred wonderful patrons, friends, and supporters of the library contributed to last month’s fundraising drive. We raised a little over $2,700 — which is great — but it is not as much as we had hoped.

Here is our final push to make ends meet and keep the library open another year! We will continue to fund raise through events, shows, and grants, but with the help of this fundraiser it will not need to be our main focus. Meaning, we will have more time to spend finding the best ways to archive and share our collection with ya’ll, as well as reach out the the broader community through workshops, readings, and other events.

If you have not donated, just click the little Widget guy to the right of this blog post to send us $5 (or more) via Paypal/credit card! You can also send checks or well-concealed cash to: Papercut Zine Library, 226 Pearl St. Somerville, MA 02145

If you HAVE donated: THANK YOU so much. Now, do you have any friends who might have slacked a little or forgotten to donate? Remind them that with just $5 they can help us meet our goal. Everyone’s participation is important!

$3,500 here we come!

Check out our past blog entries, below, for recent and ongoing incentives. There will be some more raffles announced this week as well. The sooner you donate, the more chance you have of winning!

Had a great time at today’s Carnaval @SomerStreets!  We were glad to be asked to participate by East Somerville Mainstreets, a great, local non-profit “dedicated to developing community initiatives and events that reflect and promote the true character of East Somerville as a vibrant place to live, visit, and do business.”  It’s awesome to have the opportunity to connect with our neighbors and other members of the community!

Last week one of our last zine workshops supported by the Somerville Arts Council, “Zines in the Classroom: A Workshop for Educators” convened at the library.  As a former classroom educator, this workshop was very dear to my heart.  As I wrote in the workshop description, I am excited about the creation of DIY media as a powerful (as well as cheap and accessible!) way to empower students to process and express their knowledge and experiences.

Seven former and current classroom educators from Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island attended the workshop, arriving with a range of experiences with zines and zine culture and a host of interesting questions ranging from how to come up with successful prompts for students to the relationship between zines and on-line social media.

During the workshop we looked at zines made about teaching and learning before exploring resources in various sections of the PZL and concluded by creating our own “flash zine” about our experiences as educators.  Participants, your finished product is in the mail and on its way to you!  And others, come check it out as the newest edition to our collection.  It includes a list of selected suggested zines for the K-12 classroom.  Learn more about this workshop series here.

Saturday May 28th, 2PM at the Somerville Public Library!

Another in Papercut Zine Library’s workshop series, magnanimously funded by the Somerville Arts Council, this time held uphill from Papercut at Somerville Public Library.

Even with the advent of the internet, zines remain one of the best sources of non-corporate reproductive health information. Our presenters will hold an open discussion, bring some of Papercut’s impressive holdings on menstruation, fertility, abortion, contraception, some props, show and tell, and several decades of experience with enduring and treating everything from cramps to yeasties to UTIs, BV and more! Info sharing fest.

This is as real as it gets!

Note: we will be talking about vulvae, vaginae, cervices & uteri because that’s what we know and got. Our expert presenters have lived with these parts for 75 years and have been menstruating for 40 of them. Funsies!

Bonus: you can follow us downhill after the workshop and imbibe the full amazingness of Papercut till 7PM.

On the facebook.

We at The Papercut Zine Library have decided to add yet another incentive, and this time, it’s personal. From now until the end of our drive, we’ll be holding an auction for a chance to go on an all-expenses-paid date with either Kimberly or Ben; two of our lovely librarians. The highest bidder for each librarian wins, with all the runners-up happy in the knowledge that their money has gone to a great cause.

All you have to do is make a donation either electronically on our website (papercutzinelibrary.org) with a note on which librarian you’d like to bid on, or in-person and we’ll make note of it. Both Kimberly and Ben are open to anyone bidding on them, because they know the date will be fun no matter what!

Now a bit about each of our librarians:

Ben is Papercut’s newest (and tallest) librarian. He was raised by wolves until the age of 17, when he was abandoned in a very large basket outside of the PZL. Thanks to his superpower of being able to absorb all knowledge that he eats, Ben learned how to read and write in English (albeit poorly) after masticating half of the Per-zine section. He now goes to a private college that he cannot afford, and plots his revenge against his former wolf-brethren.

Kimberly is Papercut’s senior librarian. She grew up in a tent constructed entirely from nutritional yeast and now can’t stand to be in the bulk foods section of her local grocer because of it. She is now dedicated to the study of historically silly punctuation (interrobangs, irony marks, etc…) and spends her weekends making coffee for comrades of the People’s Republic of Cambridge.

So come forth and bid on an amazing date with one of these two librarians! It’ll be a great time for everyone, and you’ll be helping out your friendly neighborhood zine library!

That’s right, folks. In case you missed that minor detail, this fundraiser was meant to be just ONE MONTH long. Unfortunately, in spite of the immense support we have witnessed over the last three weeks, we are still not quite on track.

Now, we hate asking for money. More than that, the Social Networking, blogging, and constant listserve updates are tearing us away from our beloved librarianing! We gotta keep those zines shelved, those workshops worked, and release parties…err, released! So help Papercut Zine Library continue to function at its highest capacity, and allow us to get a year’s worth of fundraising out of the way: Donate just $5 TODAY!

Not convinced? Well, here’s one more incentive to lift that donation out of your wallet/paypal/checkbook:

Christy Road, an activist, illustrator and zinester (known for her awesome zines Greenzine, Indestructible, among others) is donating a few prints of hers to the cause! That’s right. Donate in the next 48 hours (by 2pm WEDNESDAY) and you will be entered in a drawing to win one of her very own gorgeous full color posters. It will even be framed!

So what are ya waiting for? Let’s push this fundraiser into full gear! Donate now!